The Bugera V55 tube guitar amp captures the musicality of amps from the 1960s that to this day, remain the guitarist's choice for their ability to respond very dynamically to each players' nuances. Bugera's stunning 1x12 combo boasts modern touches that put an even wider palette of vintage voicings at your fingertips.

Bugera went to great lengths to give the V55 tube amp the ability to deliver everything those dusty relics of the rock revolution did-minus the collector-sized pricetags. But in true Bugera fashion this labor of love was taken one step farther to give you maximum tonal possibilities. To explain, let's take a quick detour to the late 1940s.

Before hillbillies began co-opting the blues, amps came in two varieties: those with triode (having three active electrodes) power valves and those with pentode (containing five active electrodes) power valves. Triode valves, which predated the pentodes, provide what many guitarists agree is a "softer" tone. Pentodes produce a slightly more urgent, aggressive sound. This Bugera amp runs on power pentode tubes, but include a Mode switch that lets you run the power section as if it had triode tubes-that is, at about 40 percent less power. This gives you the option of going beyond old-school-straight to elderly school.

The old amps that defined electric guitar tone were often single-channel amps. These amplifiers offer that same vintage clean, but add a second channel for modern high-gain tones. To begin, take your pick of the Bright or Normal inputs, then twist the three-band EQ (Bass, Mid, Treble) and Presence control to sculpt your signature sound. Depending on which channel you choose, three 12AX7 preamp tubes take your tone anywhere from dignified blues to garage-leveling madness.

The Bugera V55's power stage's dual 6L6 valves propel this tone through a Bugera 12" speaker. Need to feed more speakers? Both guitar amps have an Impedance switch that toggles between 4, 8 and 16 Ohms, making them compatible with virtually any speaker cabinet. These amps also have reverb, but in the interest of tone and durability, their reverb is derived from a studio-caliber digital processor. The spring reverb found in their post-war predecessors sound lovely, but they're delicate and expensive to repair. The Bugera V55's modern update gives you an equally mesmerizing vintage reverb sound without the wallet-draining vintage reliability. And if all these features weren't enough-you also get a road-tough footswitch that allows you to select channels and activate or kill the reverb remotely. So whether you're in the studio, rehearsing in the garage or pulling into Champagne-Urbana for a gig that pays two pitchers, the V55 tube guitar amp is able to complement your craft with the gold-standard tones of the past today.

These are good looking, good sounding and at the price point its halfway affordable to get two and run a stereo set up. If you plan on using the gain channel as your...Read complete review

These are good looking, good sounding and at the price point its halfway affordable to get two and run a stereo set up. If you plan on using the gain channel as your lead sound, you might be disappointed. If you need the lead channel the V-22 sounds much better in hi gain lead channel for some reason. I was very disappointed when I got these as I had demo'd the v-22 and it screamed when you cranked it but these sound sterile and brittle in the lead channel to my ears.But if you set them up clean and use one in triode and the other in pentode and adjust the eq to take advantage of the stereo spread you get a nice Fender tube pop. Throw some quality pedals in front of it and the magic starts to happen.I am using an old Ibanez PUE5T in front of them and get an awesome Hi-gain sound from the tube driver with some tasty echo and reverb.I run the pre-gain low and crank the power section on these for a little more pop.The styling and construction are nice. I don't know if the electronics in these are as durable as U.S. made gear but for the money I am pleased.

VS

Most Liked Negative Review

Eh, gonna have to do better than that.....

Well, I got this as a free upgrade from just trying to buy the head, they were out of stock, so the company bumped me up to this for free, which I thought...Read complete review

Well, I got this as a free upgrade from just trying to buy the head, they were out of stock, so the company bumped me up to this for free, which I thought was a nice touch. So I pulled it out of the box, got it all hooked up, thought, sweet, then I let it warm up for a while. Then got her up and going, sounded pretty good for about thirty seconds, then grit, fuzz, blown fuze. Replaced it, but no sound ever came out again. So the manufacturer, good old berinhger(spelled wrong, don't care), replaced it. New one fired up, no big deal. Played about three shows, it sat around for three months while out of town, came home, used it for a few practices, was running it the other day, kept crackling, then it died. I FAIL TO UNDERSTAND! How quality control can be so spotty on these things! My bandmate has a V22, and has never had any problems, and he's had his for almost a year, i couldn't even make it 5 months. I'm done. I'm getting refunds on all my Bugera stuff, I'm even sending back the extension cab, just to avoid seeing the name on my stuff.

If you are into JAZZ & BLUES you can appreciate amps that can deliver thick, warm tones. If that's what you are looking for this BUGERA V55 fills the bill nicely. HOWEVER if you are into heavy rock or a metal head this amp is not for you. The gain tone that comes from this is very distorted and in my opinion more NOISY than anything else.What is also nice is the vintage looks. The cream and black look of the amp is truly Old School. I love it.

Great sounding amp stock. Clean channel has good sound. You need to tweak the tone stack to dial in your sound. I set Vol 5, bass and treble 2, mid 5. Then dial in your guitar's volume and tone. Has nice thump to bottom end. I play this with Fender Strats, Rickenbacker 660-12, Gibson Les Pauls, all sound great. I A/B it with various Fender amps (Vibrolux Reverb, Twin Reverb, etc) and sounds just fine. Lead channel has to be tweaked as well, try Gain 3, vol 6 after that it gets muddy/fizzy. I don't use overdrive much. Clean channel runs best. Run a pedal chain of reverb, delay, compressor and slight boost right into Ch 1. Great sound. This model made April 2011, I just bought it Dec30/13. Seems well built, speaker and large box deliver good sound to my ears. Nice looking amp, works for me.

These are good looking, good sounding and at the price point its halfway affordable to get two and run a stereo set up. If you plan on using the gain channel as your lead sound, you might be disappointed. If you need the lead channel the V-22 sounds much better in hi gain lead channel for some reason. I was very disappointed when I got these as I had demo'd the v-22 and it screamed when you cranked it but these sound sterile and brittle in the lead channel to my ears.But if you set them up clean and use one in triode and the other in pentode and adjust the eq to take advantage of the stereo spread you get a nice Fender tube pop. Throw some quality pedals in front of it and the magic starts to happen.I am using an old Ibanez PUE5T in front of them and get an awesome Hi-gain sound from the tube driver with some tasty echo and reverb.I run the pre-gain low and crank the power section on these for a little more pop.The styling and construction are nice. I don't know if the electronics in these are as durable as U.S. made gear but for the money I am pleased.

The 6L6 is wired right and the 70 Watt Bugera speaker kicks serious righteous butt. No need to swap crap out on this baby, it is ready out of the box. Musician's Friend bent over backwards to get it up here to Alaska in time for our gig. Not only is the amp fantastic, so is Musicians Friend. I don't want to sound like a cheesy commercial but you cannot go wrong buying this Bugera or anything from them.You can really dial in some nice sounds, if you want to use pedal effects, this is a perfect tube amp.The onboard reverb compares with my 63 Fender Boss pedal. It sounds awesome in both pentatode and triode mode.This is a solid amp, very good deal, especially for the price.This amp will put you in hours long trances with its sweet tone, I can't stop playing it. If you are in the market for a tube amp, this has got to be the best bang for the buck.

Musicians Friend bent over backwards and went out on a limb to make sure the amp would be here in time for our gig. Considering their price match Guarantee (plus another 10% off!) I would not buy my gear from anyone else, they have proven their loyalty, superiority and concern for the musician. I am going to buy another one of these Bugera V55 amplifiers, it is just THAT good.I would give it a 10 if it would cook me breakfast. We have had some long discussions but to no avail.I stand in front of this amp and play, it takes me to another world. The tones you can dial out of this amp are crazy good. It is like butter, on homeade bread.You can go spend more for less if you want, or you could just spend more period. But why!? The twin 6L6 tubes with the triode and penatode modes will drop you off wherever you want to go. From warm, clean sounds all the way to thrasher metal death rock, without pedals! The best part is, this thing takes pedals like a fat kids takes candy. It LOVES pedals. If you like to play hard rock for example, this is your taxi to Sturgis. If you like to play the blues, this amp will make you too happy and you will forget how. Seriously, this amp does everything but cook your dinner.

I've been using this amp for nearly a year. I use no pedals but only amp. This has good clean.In my case, I like a gain chanel. Crunch sound is very good. but If you wanna play metal, you had better think again. I think humburker pickups are good at this amp, but single pickup and gain chanel is not good combination.

This is a great buy for $500. it has an efects loop, 2 inputs, reverb, mid-boost, 2 channels, impedance selector, pentode/triode switch, and external speaker outputs. The only down sides are that it's heavy and the overdrive channel sounds like a Boss DS-1. The clean tone is the best part. The reverb is good. I'm really missing that spring reverb pop though. other than those things it's great!!!

i bought this amp when it first came out. and, it did have issues, but i did my research and fixed it myself. there are 2 voltage regulators on the board that were overheating. the options were to replace the regulators or put heat sinks on the regulators. i did the latter and have had no problems since. i also retubed, this amp has great sounds, but you have to know your EQ. i suspect the voltage regulator issue has been addressed and i look forward to my next bugera purchase from musiciansfriend.com.

Well, I got this as a free upgrade from just trying to buy the head, they were out of stock, so the company bumped me up to this for free, which I thought was a nice touch. So I pulled it out of the box, got it all hooked up, thought, sweet, then I let it warm up for a while. Then got her up and going, sounded pretty good for about thirty seconds, then grit, fuzz, blown fuze. Replaced it, but no sound ever came out again. So the manufacturer, good old berinhger(spelled wrong, don't care), replaced it. New one fired up, no big deal. Played about three shows, it sat around for three months while out of town, came home, used it for a few practices, was running it the other day, kept crackling, then it died. I FAIL TO UNDERSTAND! How quality control can be so spotty on these things! My bandmate has a V22, and has never had any problems, and he's had his for almost a year, i couldn't even make it 5 months. I'm done. I'm getting refunds on all my Bugera stuff, I'm even sending back the extension cab, just to avoid seeing the name on my stuff.